AS A rule, elections tend to be a referendum on the previous term. This is particularly true for those who seek executive office.

Last year, when Oakland voters went to the polls, it is fair to conclude that many based their decision for mayor, in part, on the previous four years. However one felt about former Mayor Ron Dellums, good or bad, his four years most likely had an impact on their vote for mayor in 2010.

Among the criticisms of Dellums was his laissez-faire approach to governing. With more than three months into her first term as Oakland’s mayor, has the electorate replaced the laissez-faire Dellums with the neo-Machiavellian Jean Quan?

Machiavellian is a term when used in the context of governing is usually a pejorative. I do not use it as such when I apply it to Quan, but there is an aspect of Machiavelli’s political philosophy that Quan has apparently embraced.

Niccolo Machiavelli is best known for his amoral classic about obtaining and maintaining power, “The Prince.” One of the maxims Machiavelli is best known for is that “the ends justify the means.”

Quan appears to have embraced this notion by her unwillingness to reveal the polling data to support her proposal for an $80-a-year parcel tax. The privately funded poll was a key selling point for the tax, fueling the mayor’s belief of the likelihood of it passing.

Quan is not the first in an executive branch of government — be it president of the United States, governor or mayor, nor will she be the last — who is opposed to releasing a requested document. That fact alone does not place her in the Machiavellian school of thinking.

But the individual who responded to Maher’s request was not City Attorney John Russo, as required by the City Charter, but attorney Dan Siegel, who as of this column writing remains in private practice.

In a letter to Maher, Siegel, on his law firm stationery, wrote: “Mayor Quan has asked me to respond to your recent California Public Records Act request. The polling information you request does not constitute a ‘public record’ within the meaning of Government Code Section 6252(e). Rather, the data is the property of a private entity that has chosen not to release it publicly.”

Can the mayor have it both ways, acting as a private citizen to conduct public policy? Moreover, can she circumvent the city attorney’s office in her public capacity? The Machiavellian question would be, do the ends justify the means?

It is a dangerous game that Quan is playing. By acting as a private citizen on a matter of public record, the mayor makes herself personally liable for any ensuing litigation.

If, as the mayor maintains, the private party that conducted the poll does not wish to make it public and that no public funds were used to underwrite this effort, shouldn’t her lobbying for a parcel tax be limited to private dinner parties and not statements made on the record?

In using a justification tantamount to “because I said so” to not release the data, the mayor demonstrates a brutal disregard for the inconvenient aspects for public governing.

The acrimony that exists between Quan and Russo has been well-documented. But the difference the mayor has with the city attorney does not grant her the right to play by her own rules.

As I recall, the mayor’s predecessor complained about the public’s perception that he ought to be mayor 24 hours a day. Conversely, Quan appears not opposed to being mayor 24 hours a day, but she does want to maintain the option of being a private citizen when it suits her political needs.

I’ve made my opposition to an additional parcel tax known in this column. Without any explanation as to how the city mismanaged the previous parcel tax, asking voters for more money is a nonstarter in my view.

But this is not about releasing polling data to justify a parcel tax as much as it is about Quan’s brazen arrogance against process that does not align with her wishes. Is this the modus operandi we should expect from the mayor going forward?

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